God never lies

Someone once wrote that the presence of God is just like the air around us in that we cannot see it but know that it is there.This changed my understanding of God in that no matter what is going on, I know that He is here, right beside me, as close as the air the I breathe.

Some wonder how to know God’s presence. Some claim an inward revelation that makes them know Him, but for many the presence of God is not there without some special event. As today’s devotional points out, this is not what knowing God means. If requires no special event or mystical interior revelation, which is delightful when they happen, but can be inconsistent or uncertain.

Knowing that God is present with me is based on what He says, not based on my experiences. He says, “I will never leave you or forsake you” which is the plain knowledge of what God says about Himself, and believing it.

It is believing what is written — whether accompanied by any eureka moment or not. As my mom wrote in her Bible: God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

For example, when I read in the Bible that God is love, I am to believe it just because it is written and the Word of God who does not lie, not because I have had any inward revelation or amazing experience that proves it is true.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:10–11)

This is true because God says it, and in this truth about Himself, He actually showed it to the world be sending Jesus. However, not every statement God makes has a dramatic event to go with it. Knowing God and His power includes believing statements such as:

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:26–29)

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:30)

Because God said it, I am to believe it, not because God arranged someone to give me a new wardrobe but because He said He would take care of my needs. Knowing His omniscient power isn’t because He made known by a Google search or some other way the number of hairs I have. He says He knows this and I believe Him. He does not need to do something. He says He knows all about me — and all the proof I need is in His statement and I also know that He does not lie. Knowing that is a matter of faith in what He tells me about Himself.

PRAY: Jesus, Your Word says faith comes by hearing — and faith is simply believing what You say. How did I realize that You speak truth? If proof was needed, all I need is to look at the OT promises that said You would come, the story of Your short life here, and the cross where You died. Those who don’t believe You have been listening to someone or something else!

Low is better than high as long as I’m looking up!

I’m amazed how God puts truth before me right when I need it. In the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about my own uselessness and inferiority. It does not take “humility” long to turn into a “pity-party.” I realized this is just another variety of a sinful, self-centered me-focus, I didn’t think that I was insulting Jesus. Chambers uses these verses to point out that I am:

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? (John 4:10–11)

The woman at the well had misgivings about the ability of Jesus. At this point in her experience, she did not know Him or what He is capable of doing, so her misgivings might be excusable, but mine are not. I’ve had many years of seeing what He can do.

But what about me? I cannot do anything apart from Christ. In fact, every person alive is incapable of being what God calls for. We all fall short, even those who have served Him all their lives and accomplished much for His kingdom. Paul said that he could do all things through Christ who gives him strength. It is not the attributes and talents of Paul that mattered; it is the power of God working through Him.

So in my pity-party, I am telling Jesus that my case is a bit too hard for Him? I am saying that Jesus has nothing to draw with—nothing to make of me what He wants to make of me? I am guilty of thinking that I have no misgivings about Jesus, only about myself?

Chambers says that no one has such misgivings about themselves because we know exactly what we cannot do, but we do have misgivings about Jesus. Not only that, I get upset that He can do whatever He wants, but He isn’t doing what I want Him to do.

The issue is that I get looking at myself and the inferiority that I can see instead of admitting this is what I am and getting on with it. God does not wash His hands of uselessness; He prefers it. His Word says . . .

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–31)

I’m guilty of spiritual pride, the kind that wants to be powerful, noble, and wise. I’ve also been asking God to change me so I will be contrite before Him and give Him glory. So He is answering my prayers and I am complaining? Duh!

Love, idolatry and jealousy

Do jealousy and envy mean the same things? Greek and English dictionaries flip-flop the differences, so when I’m reading the Bible, I try to remember that envy means wanting what someone else has AND not wanting them to have it. It is always a mean-spirited attitude that desires the blessings and success of others.

Jealousy is also about wanting what others have, but the biblical use of this word is not always bad. Its root is something like zeal. This means jealousy can be a fervent desire for someone else to have the very best, something like the protective attitude of a spouse who will not tolerate anyone else making moves on their partner. In this sense, God is a jealous God...

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4–6)

Because we use the word jealousy for evil, applying it to God doesn’t seem right. Yet, the Bible uses it in that one sense. Only God can satisfy the heart without taking anything from those He loves. Because of that, only He has the full right to ask me for my undivided heart and only He has the right to be zealous for my devotion — not for His own sake but for mine. He wants the best for me, and He is the best.

In humans, jealousy becomes evil when it tries to make the same claim as God. That is, if I demand the full and undivided attention, loyalty and love of someone else, I am asking them to do for me only what God can do. Not only am I being selfish, this is an idolatrous insult to God. If I am upset with what I have and want what others have, I am turning my back on God and looking to something or someone else to do for me what only He can do.

By that description, jealousy is close to idolatry and the reason God connected the two in these commands from Exodus. Jealousy in God is not an evil idolatry, but that zeal of His love and His desire to know that only He can give me everlasting satisfaction. I don’t need to prove myself or be anxious about ‘what others think’ of me. My heart is at peace because of the love of God. I know that He loves me for what He can do for me, not what I can do for Him.

That said, no wonder He calls Himself a jealous God. He offers me all that my heart could possibly want, so any time that I turn elsewhere to have my needs met, He aches, not for Himself but for my folly. He knows that the only place where I am safe and satisfied is in His love and in giving my total devotion and my heart to Him. This is why He warns His people to keep away from idols; He knows nothing else will meet our needs.

But He also knows that sin keeps us from loving Him with that total devotion, so He took the initiative. Instead of demanding my utter and perfect devotion, He gave me His…

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:10–11)

And then He adds the warning… “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21) because that is not love for Him and He has every right to be a jealous God.